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This Friday (starting at 9:30 pm), there is an astronomical strong point to admire: a total lunar eclipse. With a duration of 103 minutes, it is the longest total lunar eclipse of the century. From Switzerland, assuming a clear sky, you can see the entire south-east sky as well as the path of the blood moon out of the shadow of the earth.
Mars is lit up at the same time. The red planet almost achieves its greatest possible brightness and even surpasses the planet Jupiter. The reason: Mars is currently near the sunniest point of its orbit. At the same time, the earth is far from the sun. Earth and Mars are so extraordinarily close at the moment.
Because of the atmosphere of the Earth, the moon shines reddish
Even at the naked eye, events can be traced. Of course, with binoculars or a telescope, you can see more details about the moon. Since the events unfold just above the horizon and at least partially at low light at dusk, the photographers get their money's worth
The Moon in the Shadow of the Earth n & # 39; is not completely black and invisible. reddish part of sunlight broken and distracted from the moon. The blue part of the light is scattered completely in all directions – only a tiny fraction reaches the moon
Photos: The brightest moon in 2017
Unlike the total lunar eclipse, Mars can only be observed only on Friday. Since the red planet is 37 minutes longer than the Earth during a complete turn, its face changes day by day. With a good telescope, one of the two white polar ice caps of Mars should be recognized. These consist of frozen carbon dioxide and ice water. For the moment, you will not be able to see the fine details of Mars. Since the planet appears close to the horizon, reflected light must travel a long way through the atmosphere of the restless earth.
The darkening of the moon has preoccupied people since time immemorial. In the ancient world, it was a sign of the gods who dwelt in heaven and intervened powerfully in the earthly world. The ancient astrologers tried to understand the signs in the sky. In doing so, they even obtain surprisingly reliable predictions: so-called saros cycles predict eclipses of sun and moon. The earliest records of these eclipse cycles are cuneiform scriptures dating back to the eighth century BC. The current lunar eclipse is the 38th eclipse of the Saros cycle 129, which began in June 1351 and will end after 71 eclipses in July 2613.
It will be necessary to wait until the New Year 2028 to see the complete course of 39, a lunar eclipse in central Europe. And on June 9, 2123, our descendants can even admire a lunar eclipse three minutes longer than the current one.
(Tages-Anzeiger)
Created: 24.07.2018, 18:11
The enigmatic Erdtrabant
The phenomenon of the lunar eclipse is well understood. It is much less clear how the moon came into its extravagant orbit. It surrounds the earth at surprisingly large distances, even in an unbalanced orbit: the lunar orbit is tilted about five degrees from the ecliptic, plane on which the earth and all the other planets turn around the sun. [19659002L'explicationstandarddececiestlasuivante:Ilyaenviron45milliardsd'annéesuncorpsmartienappeléTheiaatonnésurlajeuneTerreetajetélamatièreenorbiteIlyavaitlàundisquedematièredontsegroupaitlatombedelaterreL'axederotationdelaterreavaitdudébutdel'inclinaisonactuellede23degrésàl'écliptiqueAudébutlaluneaentourélaterrelelongdel'équateurmaisàcausedesforcesdemaréeelles'estapprochéeaucoursdesmilliardsd'annéesdel'écliptiqueMaisaulieud'entourerlaterreexactementsurl'écliptiqueilatoujoursl'tiltoffivedegrees
A possible explanation for this is that the accident with Theia was a much larger disaster than the standard model of lunar origin suggests, the axis of rotation of the earth does not change. would not have been inclined 23, but initially from 60 to 80 degrees compared to the ecliptic after crushing. The strong impact would also explain why the Earth and the Moon are chemically twins: the matter of the impactor and the young earth would have almost completely mixed.
Instability in rotation
The Moon is distant from the Earth, causing instability in the rotation of the Earth. The axis of rotation of the earth has rocked from 60 to 80 at the current 23 degrees. In a second instability, the moon flew sharply out of the equatorial orbit and began to roll around the ecliptic. The after-effects are to be seen today in the form of the inclined orbit of five degrees. This model of supercrash explains a lot, but has not yet been engraved in stone. Either way, the tilt of the moon leads to a total lunar eclipse on Friday.
Joachim Laukenmann
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